I quit reading his rant after the iPhoto part. I've never owned a Mac, but I have used other peoples (when they come to me for help). iPhoto may really suck, but his real problem is relying on it to organize his photos. He should have taken the time to organize the photos himself and only use iPhoto to view/edit them.

I am a bit of a photography geek, and I just checked and I have over 15,000 pictures that I've taken over the years. I use the free IrfanView as my main photo viewer because the one that comes with Windows sucks, and I use three different programs to edit photos. I can find any specific photo in seconds, without using any of the programs because I organize them myself by putting them in named directories and sub directories.

Verno wrote on Sep 20, 2012, 13:12:I don't think it is more difficult to use or troubleshoot given how familiar with the command line I am. Windows is no better in this regard, often hiding things between configuration files in different directories and adding the complexity of the registry hive.

There is a distinct difference, there, though. On a PC, it can in some cases be more difficult to configure something initially to get it running.

On a Mac, "things just work" in theory, and there's little configuration to be done.

The problem and differences become evident in the inevitable cases where things don't just work, which really has become increasingly more common in the last few years. On a PC, things are generally easy to fix and solutions (and experts) are easy to come by... even complex ones, with a little Google-fu. That's not the case on a Mac.

At the business help desk where I work, we have a low percentage of Mac users with actual Mac systems, but per person they generate more support calls than the PC users do with a much smaller closed call ratio and a MUCH longer call time (almost triple, which is huge). We're also inundated with calls over the last year to two years for iPhones since the decision was made to try and support their usage. Seriously, the call volume for these things and the manpower put into supporting them is just idiotic compared to the benefit they provide and that they're supposed to be so simple to configure and use.

Apple's shit has become much more common in usage over the last few years, and everyone agrees that it's a pain in the ass to maintain and support... the kicker to me is the number of users who complain about not being able to use them, and the difficulty we have actually helping with that. PC's break, but they're simple to fix. Apple's stuff, even the simple stuff like the iPhones, well...if it doesn't work, good luck.

Verno wrote on Sep 20, 2012, 13:12:I don't think it is more difficult to use or troubleshoot given how familiar with the command line I am. Windows is no better in this regard, often hiding things between configuration files in different directories and adding the complexity of the registry hive.

Macs and PCs are largely the same as they've always been - a GUI that works for Most People while obfuscating functionality that adds complexity. The trouble occurs when people need that complexity and that's where the interface, application design and the operating system all clash. Same story everywhere.

My big problem for a lot of the mac software I support is that I think Apple drinks it's own kool-ade when it comes to the idea that they "just work".

I mean, yeah, the blue screen of death reads like klingon and the Matrix had an illegitimate love child, but I can google BSOD 0x003B and find out on the first link that I have a bad driver somewhere (Holy shit I got that from memory!). Macs on the other hand would just blank out and stop responding. Entirely. Or give me the bomb, or the frowny mac face. Which is REALLY useful.

The funny thing is that the article herein where the dude bitches about calendars, address books, issues, and sync problems has a simple solution: Jump to Exchange. It's expensive, it's a pain in the ass to configure initially, but once it's up and running, it runs like glass. We're on exchange 07 right now and it supports every tablet, phone, and computer I throw at it with almost zero config issues (biggest issue so far: iOS introduced a "feature" where they auto-change all your appointments when you change time zones. And didn't alert anyone to this change. Which caused all kinds of hell for one of the owners who missed flights and meetings because of Apple douche-baggery). Activesync works wonderfully across multiple platforms, I can push exchange services over HTTPS, and the only issue I've really seen with that is that I have to point mac outlook to a specific file on the server to use exchange over HTTPS instead of just pointing to the server.

I imagine there are other solutions other than exchange, but I haven't had an issue with the platform for years. Starting with 07 they really pushed out a powerful and rather classy piece of software.

I have more problems with my macbook and my ipod touch than with my Vista machine or windows 7 machine. For OSX to be buggier than my windows machine despite dealing with much fewer hardware combinations is weird. For an IOS machine (ipod touch 4th gen) to be buggier than either of my windows machines is unforgivable.

I don't think it is more difficult to use or troubleshoot given how familiar with the command line I am. Windows is no better in this regard, often hiding things between configuration files in different directories and adding the complexity of the registry hive.

Macs and PCs are largely the same as they've always been - a GUI that works for Most People while obfuscating functionality that adds complexity. The trouble occurs when people need that complexity and that's where the interface, application design and the operating system all clash. Same story everywhere.

Oooh the nightmare of complexity and problems PC users have. It's horrible! lol.. the misconceptions of mac users really are funny. My recommendation to this guy? Get a PC. Don't like Microsofts image sharing software? Then buy one of the myriad third party programs that fits your likes and needs better instead of being forced to use Apples shitty software.

Speaking of calenders.... don't even let me get started.. Why isn't there a god damn open source calender with possible SIMPLE AS HELL server based cloud/sync function that can be used on Android/Unix/Mac/PC and on anything with a web-access? (ok, and that can sync with google calender, obviously ,p)

I guess google calender is adequate but it only really syncs nicely to android phones and tablets (or windows tablets or phones, funnily..) but try syncing your google calender with any custom calender from some phone provider....

This is not just an Apple issue, aside from google calender i am not even AWARE of a proper calender app (To this day I have no idea why Windows (yes, the OS) doesn't include a calender and alarm system in the god damn clock functionality.